But just for my personal understanding, what's the use of asking for 500$ if they give it back to you no questions asked? Apart from the fact you're lending them 500$ for a little while, they gain nothing at all. And it doesn't prevent most people from reserving something they don't really want just in case they change their mind since they know they can get the money back. I just don't see the value in it so I'm hoping someone can enlighten me.
Its to get someone invested in it, and gauge actual interest. When there is no money exchanged, unfortunately "humans being humans" there will be a lot of people who would order with no intention of ever picking up said order.
Same reason why dealers will ask for credit applications for a test drive on certain vehicles when the latest "fast n furious" movie comes out or if they want to verify someone is able to actually buy the car they are looking at.
Not common on a hyundai, but if someone goes to test drive a fully specced out BMW M8 something, and the dealer looks at them and doesnt either already have a relationship with them or have evidence that "they are in that weight class" so to speak, they will start throwing up roadblocks like "we dont allow test drives on that vehicle" or "we only do test drives with a credit application.
Same deal here. A few people ruin stuff for everyone else (why we dont have a return policy on tesla vehicles right now, in my opinion, or why they have this "order fee" policy, which still hasnt stopped people from trying to flip reservations, when tesla raises prices and does the right thing and doesnt raise prices on pre existing orders. People still try to take advantage and flip reservations etc with bogus excuses.)